Sunset Progression on Sunday

I was lucky enough to see the amazing sunset on Sunday. It was GORGEOUS. The reds were beautiful. I was facing west, obviously, but I heard that facing east towards St Paul was a beautiful red rainbow. 

 

What I started this season

Well, as usual, I ignored what I said I was going to do and just started everything. 

I started lots and lots of sweet peppers because we eat lots of those along with tomatoes. I have learned in previous years that I am not so great at using up preserved food - I don't remember what I have in the freezer, I don't like the canning process, and the only thing that I use regularly are dried herbs - cilantro and basil are what I use on a regular basis. And two years ago, with great restraint, I only planted what we eat and the garden was a huge success. Soooooo... I better stick to that. 

I started six leeks - I truly enjoy potato leek soup so my plan is to plant enough for two meals, enough potatoes for two meals plus roasted potatoes and a few meals of mashed potatoes too. 

I mainly want to grow snacking tomatoes this year. I have pear varieties, grape tomatoes, sungolds to make simple pasta sauces, celebrities, romas for sauce and bruschetta, steak sandwiches for... BLTs! I may have planted too many, but I also am not quite sure of what our summer travel plans are yet - when I know, then I'll know to plant more of less of which variety and I can give away or donate the left over tomato varieties.

For so many years I was terrified of starting my own annual flowers. I was like... I should just grow my own food! But then when you go to purchase annuals, I always feel bad spending money on a single season plant. I started with a couple varieties two years ago - snapdragons and lavender - now I'm adding more! I have strawflowers, sunflowers, lavender, foxglove (as a first, it's toxic, so I need to plant it in my front yard in a corner away from the dog areas), and again this year, I'm doing artichokes for their flowers and not to eat the buds.

I would love to plant lavender down by the sidewalk but as I'm watching people walk their dogs... owners are letting dogs pee on my boulevard plants so I'm going to swap out flowers for mulch and leave it at that. I'll put the lavender on the taller beds so it's at eye level with kids when they walk by. It will still smell good!

Check out how teeny tiny these seeds are, they were sent in a centrifugal container and there are not so many!! I put 3 seeds in each container that I had - and I have upgraded to 3 inch pots so that I don't have to upgrade. For each year that I started in the smaller, 6-part containers I have had to up pot several times and so I'm continuing with my plan from last year, 3 inch pots so no up potting. Making it easier!

Shade is starting to creep into my yard a bit more (which is fine, as gardeners we need to be flexible because plants don't always do what we want them to do). So I have a whole tray of multiple varieties of coleus. At the plant stores, sometimes the shade plants are too green or not so colorful but coleus comes in a variety of pinks and whites and greens. I highly recommend for shade because it can get HUGE and fill in areas that might be blank. I also have impatiens.

I have several Snapdragon varieties. These tend to self-seed in my yard and pop up in random areas. They come up in my grass next to my pots, in my garden beds in random spots, but they are supposed to be annuals. We have moved to Zone 5, so our microclimate is a bit warmer and that will help to protect lavender too, if you have that in a sunny spot in your yard.

Last - here's a photo of my seed starting set up this year. I decided not to fill the entire set of shelves. I left one shelf unoccupied by seeds because I may have forgotten to plant something and I would love to make sure I have room to start a few more if I decide I need to. Warming mats are on, lights are set for 12 hours per day, and I've already had to water twice in our dry basement. I will keep you updated on plant progress.

 

Seed Starting Timeline for 2026

 This post probably won't have pictures... sorry!

I went over my seeds this past weekend to determine what I want to start inside and what I want to start outside. This year's weather seems a little warmer than usual - much like last year - so my ultimate plan is to get seedlings outside the second weekend in May, but if the soils are warm enough, I will happily plant a weekend earlier. 

One trickier plant that I'm doing this year is artichokes (again!). Last year I didn't get them outside in time for enough days for cool vernalization to help with the plant making blooms. My mom was sick and I just didn't have enough time to really plan that out. This year, I will put my artichokes OUTSIDE in early April - they need 10 days of low overnight temperatures in the 40s. I waited too long and just got green artichokes that looked like overgrown thistles! 

From my calculations, it looks like my general start dates will be either March 1st, or March 15th, with an ocassional early April tossed in.

March 1: Tomatoes, Lavender, Foxglove (I've never grown this before, it's also extremely toxic so will be placed in a corner of my front yard where Phil can't get it!), Snapdragon (I didn't realize they needed such a long time inside), Impatiens, Artichokes

March 15: Last of tomatoes if I decided I forgot something, Coleus, Brussels Sprouts, Peppers, Mexican Sour Gherkins (technically you can wait and plant these outside but in my experience, they grow faster and more robust if started inside)

Early April: Strawflowers, Marigolds, and other annuals plus any last minute squash if I have any room

This year I purchased much different trays - instead of buying the cheapies from Menards I decided to upgrade a little and purchased very sturdy trays with taller ridges on the bottoms so that I can exclusively bottom-water. Bottom watering is better for establishing roots but it also helps cut down on the amount of fungus gnats and other insects that like to lay eggs in damp soil. I'm hoping to mitigate that from the start. I also purchased 7.5 inch tall clear tray domes. The shorter ones that are available at the stores are not what I would like. Not all the plants are growing at the same rate and I need the domes to contain the humidity for a bit longer for some of the seeds to start - especially the flowers. I'm hoping this helps give them a bit more time in the humidity and helps the smaller plants catch up more quickly.

Happy seed starting!!

Weekly Meal Planning

I am so annoyed with myself this week. Before I really had to do the primary caretaking for my mom, I really sat down to meal plan and organize everything for the week. I was FABULOUS at being so organized and then chaos descended into my life and all the meal planning was thrown out the window because life became unpredictable.

This past week I decided to start planning and organizing at least 4 out of 5 of my lunches. On Sunday I made roasted veggies to portion out into my usual lunch containers, cut up portions of meat, and cous cous. Then I went downstairs to look for my old meal prep containers. As it turns out, I gave them away on Buy Nothing because I just had no time. I should have kept them. Oh, well.

So on Sunday I just tossed all the veggies in a large container and yesterday I got my new lunch containers in the mail. Lunch prep is saved for the next few months. LOL. 

This week's lunches include: leftover pizza, salads, steak with roasted veggies and potatoes, and my last one is just a salad with roasted veggies. So I'm jumping back into this as easy and slowly as possible.

 

Out With 2025 In With 2026

Our tree is a little lopsided this year. It makes me chuckle every time I walk into the living room.

It's snowing. Again. It's not as relentless as a few years ago but it definitely comes more often than the last two years! Luckily the kids are ok with shoveling and I will happily pay them a few dollars to get outside and earn some money. Q has been shoveling for our neighbor and she is giving him money too!

Phil. He's 6. Still looks like a baby.

I use plain notebooks to keep track of everything I need to do or want to do. It's like I journal for daily life. I can't seem to throw them away when they're full. I bought an actual journal for my garden this year and realized that I probably won't use it. I end up putting everything in one spot and then go back and add in tags and arrows for all the important things. It helps with my mental organization and it also helps me NOT forget things.

Will I do a New Year's Resolution this year? Maybe! I think it might have to do more with physical activity - like get out to a different park for a walk once per month. I have to make it realistic and specific. I have to choose something that I've always wanted to do and make it a priority. This year I'll have more time and so I want to do things that make me happy. 

Happy New Year!